Did Christian Theology Help
Cause Science?: The JakiDuhem and Merton Theses
Explained
Eric V. Snow
•Read aloud Karl Popper’s comment in Jaki, “Origin of Science,” p. 152, n. 45.
•Read aloud British Philosopher Alfred North Whitehead’s concession, C:CS?, p.
11; Rationality assumption issue: Universe knowable since God is rational, not
whimsical, and so made a knowable, observable universe.
Jaki-Duhem & Merton Theses
Copyright 1996-98 © Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc.
1
If Christianity is blamed for
causing science . . .
• . . . then Christian theology should be
credited for causing science.
• UN’s Environmental Programme’s Global
Biodiversity Assessment’s condemns
Christian ideas that desacralized nature,
made man distinct from the world.
•1. Read aloud quotes from UN’s report, as in p. 26, “C:CS?”; Origin, p. 107;154, n65
•2. Read Jaki’s witty retort, p. 27, “C:CS?”; Origin of Science, p. 107.
Jaki-Duhem & Merton Theses
2
Bad or incomplete explanations
for the rise of science
• Must explain why modern science rose in
early modern Europe first, not elsewhere.
• Other civilizations also had peace, wealth,
social organization, educated elite, etc.
– Limits to sociological explanations
• Intellectual climate is absolutely crucial
– Ideas have consequences
– Marxist/materialist bias against analyzing
– Cultures won’t automatically develop science
Jaki-Duhem & Merton Theses
•Quote Jaki, in C:CS?, p. 3; Savior of Science, p. 35; avoid loose, broad def. of “sci.,” why
3
Christian ideas, not just Greek,
needed for the birth of science
• Definition of self-sustaining “science” crucial,
it isn’t wisdom or practical technology.
• Duhem-Jaki thesis: Christian theology after
centuries eventually drives out or restrains
pagan ideas so science can be born.
• Merton thesis: Like Weber’s on Calvinism
helping cause the rise of capitalism.
• Puritanism’s beliefs and practical values
promoted the rise of science in England.
Jaki-Duhem & Merton Theses
4
For science to develop, what
Christian ideas did it need?
• Time is conceived of as linear, from creation, not
cyclical, as per pagan view; is quantifiable.
– Christians don’t want crucifixion literally repeated!; 1x for all.
• Clarifies cause-effect relationships, succession actions
– Chinese example of chronological confusion
• Avoids complacency and/or hopelessness since no
lasting developmental progress is possible.
– E. Indian examples, repetition causes also stagnation, etc.
•Chinese example, quote Jaki, in C:CS?,
p. 7. &East
Indian
examples, C:CS?, p. 12;
5
Jaki-Duhem
Merton
Theses
Reincarnation/transmigration of souls: Goal is to try to escape cycle, join Brahma; Sci. abs. Req.
What bad pagan ideas
prevented the rise of science?
• Organismic view of nature hinders scientific mind-set:
– All of universe/world one huge organism that is born, lives,
dies, reborn. (Applies to it cyclical view of time/reincarnation).
Denies creation from nothing, ex nihilo; world always existed.
– Pantheistic: Everything is divine and/or alive, has its own
consciousness. Mankind not qualitatively different from world.
– If has will of own, universe can’t be reliably predicted, has no
firm, steady laws of nature. Heavenly laws not = to earthly laws
– It conceives of stars, planets, rocks, water in oceans, etc., as
alive, as gods, as divine, etc. Planets named for gods.
– Christianity allowed for the de-animation of the heavens and of
nature: Non-living rocks, inorganic outer space made modern
science of astronomy possible; laws of physics then universal.
6
Jaki-Duhem & Merton Theses
•Quote Buddhist monk attacking creation
ex nihilo, C:CS?, p. 6; to Chr., world inferior to Creator;
More bad pagan ideas that
hindered scientific development
• Must avoid pseudo-scientific “explanations” that have
nothing to do with what occurs in physical reality.
– Astrology: Idea that the positions of stars determine human
destiny crippling to taking initiative in life.
– Chinese examples: Yin/Yang, I Ching (Book of Changes) for
divinations.
– People don’t search for better, more correct explanations of
natural phenomena when they think they know the “causes”
already. Read alleged final causes into events, substances.
– Aristotle’s “four elements” theory example, pagan Greek.
•Chinese examples, C:CS?, p.Jaki-Duhem
8, top; Christian
opp.to
astrology more successful than in other
7
& Merton
Theses
civiliz.: Augustine against, etc.
What Christian ideas promoted
the rise of science?
• The external world is both real and fundamentally
orderly.
– People won’t carefully investigate, analyze, or quantify illusions
and chaos; meditating on nature isn’t “science.”
– Hindu/Buddhist concept of Maya, “All is illusion,” cripples
would-be physical sciences in India, China, etc.
– If nature whimsically controlled by millions of gods, deities,
godlets, spirits, and demons, not predictable.
– Christian view that God is rational and trustworthy, so therefore
His physical creation is knowable; man’s mind reliable.
– Islam’s Allah much more willful and unpredictable than
Jehovah, ultimately hinders Islamic science.
& Merton
Theses
•Quote C:CS?, pp. 21-22; Oresme’sJaki-Duhem
clock maker
metaphor
for God; later somewhat
misused by Deists; Christ’s body real (I Jn, vs. Gnostics), so physical world real;
8
Balance between faith and
reason needed
• Balanced synthesis of Thomas Aquinas and
Scholasticism critical to late Medieval science’s rise.
– Catholicism ultimately finds a way to accept much of
Aristotle’s philosophy without going overboard either way.
– Had to reject bad ideas of Aristotle (heavens alive) while
accepting good ones (logic) to have science.
– Bishop of Paris Tempier’s 1277 condemnation crucial.
• Islam’s lack of balance stops its scientific development.
– Muslim philosophers Mutazilites, Avicenna, Averroes
subordinate Islamic theology to Aristotle’s ideas.
– Muslim theologians Al-Ghazzali and al-Ashari often very
mystical, emphasized Allah’s will over His reason.
•C:CS?, p15. Ghazzali’s “Incoherence of Philosophers” promoted occasionalism, God’s
Jaki-Duhem
& Merton
Theses
constant direct intervention in creating
all effects
in world.
Averroes double truth theory, that
9
Merton’s thesis: Did Puritanism
help cause science?
• Sociological, “externalist” explanation, not intellectual,
“internalist,” from within science’s own history.
• 17th century science in England promoted by Puritan
values of utility, reason, empiricism, and seeking the
glory of God.
• Serve God through serving the community through
useful trades, “callings,” vs. monastic ideal of
contemplative withdrawal from world.
• Reason and education both praised for practical
purposes; vs. speculative philosophy, scholasticism.
• High % of 17th century British scientists Puritans.
Jaki-Duhem & Merton Theses
10
Biblical beliefs and values
helped to cause science
• World’s overemphasis on Galileo’s condemnation by
Catholicism’s Inquisition gives false impression.
– Galileo and da Vinci depended on Oresme, Buridan, their
medieval predecessors.
– Jaki-Duhem and Merton theses make important correctives.
– Synthesis of Greek philosophy, Hindu-Arabic numerals, and
Christian theology created true self-sustaining science.
• Sources:
– Stanley Jaki, The Savior of Science, The Origin of Science
and the Science of Its Origin, Science and Creation.
– Robert Merton, “Science in Seventeenth Century England.”
– Pierre Duhem, Le System du Monde: Proposed project to
translate
it into English,
distribute
tounbiased
universities.
•Must note continuity
from medieval
period to early
modern; for
history of sci., don’t
Jaki-Duhem
Merton
Theses 19th c. error); Jaki, “Origin,” 61-62.11
jump from Greeks to Galileo (Herbert
Spencer,&Wm.
Whewell